University or College?

Today's topic is neither beauty, fashion nor food related, but since it's back to school time, I've been thinking about school lately. I finished a postgraduate program in fashion management in April and I also have an arts degree in history and political science. Back when I was in high school, there weren't many people who attended both university and college. I automatically decided that I should go to university because to me, that's what people did after high school. Due to the economy and job market these days, many people are deciding to go to college after they complete their degree or heading straight to college after high school in order to focus their skill set on a particular career. Today I wanted to share a bit about my experiences in both university and college.

University

• University develops your critical thinking skills. I'm not saying that college doesn't, but many of my college courses were very practical and hands-on, while university is much more theory based and really gets you thinking.
• I preferred the workload in university. Most of my courses in university were structured around a midterm, final exam and a research paper or two. In college, the majority of my classes had many, many assignments that were all worth very little (less than 20% of the final grade), and there were definitely weeks when I had assignments (sometimes two or three) due every day.
• There's so much to do on campus. I lived in residence during my first year and I was never bored. 
• You can take electives. In college, my course load was set by my program coordinator, but in university I could take any arts classes that I wanted as electives.

College

• Instructors seem genuinely interested in your career. They come from industry and they also consult with professionals in your chosen field, and can add or remove material from the course as they see fit.
• Friendship. I found it so much easier to make friends in college than in university. In university, first and second year classes are huge (especially classes like intro to psychology, economics and political science), and everyone has a different schedule. In my college program, I took every class with the same 50 people so I formed many amazing friendships. In fact I made friends by the end of the first day! College is also more focused on group projects while university (at least arts programs) is more focused on individual work.
• While my university had tons of extracurricular activities, few if any were career-focused. In college I had an internship, attended networking events, helped create a window display in the fashion building and was encouraged to attend every industry event that I could.

In the end, I enjoyed university and college, and they both offer unique experiences. If you're heading off to school, remember to do your best and enjoy yourself!